PM editor Seth Porges got to ride in one of the biggest snow-grooming machines on the East Coast—Okemo's Prinoth BR500.

Extreme Machines: Riding a Monster Snow Groomer

Extreme Machines: Riding a Monster Snow Groomer

After suffering through a day's worth of skiers, a resort's slopes can be in disarray, full of uneven trails and clumps. To get them back to prime skiing condition, resorts employ snow groomers—big, hulking plow-like machines that use massive engines to push snow back up steep inclines. On a recent visit to Vermont's Okemo Mountain Resort, we got to ride in the passenger seat of one of the biggest and baddest ones on the market—the Prinoth BR500, or simply "The Beast," as Okemo's employees call it.

The massive snow groomer is powered by a six-cylinder 520-hp turbocharged Caterpillar engine. The fuel tank holds 300 liters, and the machine burns 10.73 gallons of gas per hour (as opposed to the 6.84 gallons of smaller, 350-hp snow groomers).